Comments on: The surprise quiz paradox

By: Why game theory matters for business (quote) - Mind Your Decisions

Why game theory matters for business (quote) - Mind Your Decisions — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:49:23 +0000

[...] went on to discuss things like the dollar auction game, the game theory of surprises, and Hotelling’s game and their business implications, amongst other [...]

By: Joon

Joon — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:05:47 +0000

I remember Grosland. He was awesome. Never heard that story before tho. There are indeed actual pop-quizzes. Never underestimate the sadistic nature of professors.

I’ve even had one who was so fed up with his class, he made one up on the spot.

By: Presh Talwalkar

Presh Talwalkar — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:24:12 +0000

@RohoMech and Joe P: Yes, it does sound like a Groslandism.

By way of background, Mr. Grosland was an excellent chemistry teacher (and debate coach) for my high school.

At one point, he told students to grade each other’s exams. Two students were caught changing each others answers. How did he find out?

The day before, he secretly photocopied all the exams. He then reviewed the graded exams for answers that looked suspiciously erased and changed. He confronted the students, failed them, and made the incident public. He never had a problem with cheating students again…

By: Joe P

Joe P — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:36:27 +0000

For some reason, that sounds like a Groslandism

By: RohoMech

RohoMech — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:39:59 +0000

@John & Presh

I’ve witnessed actual pop-quizzes…its pretty effective imo, especially if people do terrible on the first one.

But, I think it comes down to punishing people for not keeping up with the syllabus vs rewarding people for being ready for a given exam.